Hi, I'm Dr. Jen Gunter, author of The Vagina Bible, and I'm here to talk about the things
you shouldn't put in your vagina, like garlic and essential oils and jade eggs and steam
and vodka-soaked tampons.
Let's talk about the vaginal ecosystem, because it's really important, because anything that
you put inside your vagina could have an impact on that. The vaginal ecosystem has evolved
over centuries, since the beginning of time, to deal with things like intercourse and childbearing
and menstrual cycles. We know that the vagina has a pH of about 4.3 to 4.5, and this is
because the good bacteria produce products that keep the pH in that range. You can't
change your vaginal pH by putting products in, and that's a really important thing for
you to remember. So when people are trying to sell you stuff that says it can regulate
your pH, it's not possible. I want you to think about it: if the pH of the vagina could
be changed long-term from an external product, then we would never survive ejaculation. That
would always change the vaginal pH permanently, and then that would throw the whole ecosystem
off. So, it's best to leave the vagina alone and not to put any products in there, unless
you've got a very specific medical condition and this is recommended by a physician.
So, essential oils are extracts from botanicals, and they smell nice and if you have a diffuser
in your room and you like that, that's great. But essential oils can be irritating to the
skin and they're certainly not recommended for vaginal use, and so I would keep them
more for your home care and not for your vaginal care.
Garlic in your vagina for yeast infections. So, this is an old myth and it's been around
for a long time, and it was even recommended in the book "Our Bodies Ourselves," so I always
like to point out that when women are doing this, they're not just sort of randomly sticking
vegetable matter in their vaginas -- they've gone online and a trusted source has told
them to use that. There are naturopaths online that will tell women to put garlic in their
vagina, and even some medical doctors. This, like a lot of other myths, comes from some
basic science. There's something in garlic called allicin, and it may have properties
against yeast, but it hasn't been studied at all. The other thing is, to release allicin,
you actually have to cut and crush the garlic. That's why you have to cut garlic when you
cook with it -- otherwise there isn't any of that flavour that's released, because that's
also from the allicin. So, this can be damaging to the vagina. It can be very irritating.
I have had to pull out little bits of garlic from many patients in the office, and I never
want anyone to feel bad that that's had to happen, because I know that they went online
in good faith and they were looking for information and they were given misinformation or even
sometimes disinformation and frank lies. So, garlic can't help yeast infections. It's been
unstudied and certainly it could have soil bacteria in it and we have no idea what it
could do to your good bacteria. And I don't know about you, but if you've ever gotten
garlic in a cut, that actually really hurts. Now imagine your whole inflamed vagina with
a yeast infection and putting crushed garlic in there.
There's an urban myth about using vodka-soaked tampons to get drunk.
So, first of all, this has never really been documented, so it's really an urban myth.
But secondly, alcohol burns like hell in the vagina -- that's why, when we're cleaning
the vagina before doing surgery, we're very careful about using non-alcohol-based products,
or if we use an alcohol-based product, about washing it out quite quickly. So there's that.
There's also the idea that a tampon can't really hold that much. A tampon might hold
10 or 15 cc's of fluid. That's less than a shot, so that's not exactly a lot of alcohol.
Then there's the idea about 'How do you get a soaking wet tampon into your vagina without
squeezing out all of the liquid?" So, the person who dreamed up this myth has clearly
never even seen a wet tampon, so no, it's a myth, but don't try it at home.
I get asked a lot about cannabis tampons or suppositories for pain. It's completely unstudied.
I think that's really important for people to understand, that we have no idea what can
happen when you put cannabis in your vagina. You have to remember that there's a very delicate
ecosystem and you have all of this bacteria in there and we don't know if cannabis could
have a negative effect on it.
We also don't know if the cannabis can be absorbed well, and we don't know, for pain
relief, if the cannabis needs to be in your bloodstream or it needs to be a local application.
Because obviously if it needs to be in your bloodstream, you don't need to be putting
it in your vagina. So this is very much a buyer beware. The one thing that I would say
is the only study that we have on cannabis use tells us that women who use cannabis regularly
are more likely to be colonized with yeast in their vagina. I always like people to think
about, how would you feel if a pharmaceutical company had a new product that was completely
untested but they told you it was good for you and you should use it.
What are vaginal jade eggs? Well, if you don't know, that's actually a good thing and just
never pay any attention to anything about it.
But if you want to know, what they are is a grifty product that was sold on Goop, and
is actually still sold on Goop, as an ancient Chinese practice to tone your pelvic floor.
It's actually not -- it's a modern grift, and the claims that Goop made about the jade
eggs were not only that it could tone your pelvic floor but that it could balance your
hormones and help you with your feminine energy.
Your feminine energy doesn't come from your vagina. It comes from your brain. You do not
need to put jade eggs in your vagina to tone your lady parts, as a celebrity said, so no
-- you can certainly do Kegel exercises, which are a good way to help treat incontinence,
or if you've got one of those urges to go to the bathroom, you can do what's called
quick flicks -- you can read about it in the Vagina Bible, and that can help you get to
the bathroom without leaking. But a jade egg isn't going to help you.
Should you steam your vagina? No, no you shouldn't.
I don't care what any celebrity tells you. First of all, steam can burn, and there's
been a case report of someone who was actually burned by doing this.
But the idea of vaginal steaming -- and steam can't even really get in your vagina -- is
so harmful on so many levels.
First of all, if the steam could get in your vagina, it would be dangerous because the
vagina is a no oxygen environment. You don't want any oxygen to come up there with the
steam. Secondly, the reason why it's recommended is to clean toxins from your uterus. I want
you all to remember that the oldest myth of the patriarchy is that the uterus is dirty
and filled with toxins. This has been used to weaponize women's bodies against them since
the beginning of time, so when you say that the uterus needs to be cleansed or to be cleaned
of toxins, you are the patriarchy, and wrapping it in a pink ribbon and putting it in a glass,
bespoke jar doesn't change that. So, don't steam your vagina. Use science and leave it
all alone and ignore the patriarchy.